个体认知方式与材料复杂性对视空间工作记忆的影响

采用计算机呈现的Corsi积木点击任务,探讨了不同认知方式个体对材料的路径、结构和数量复杂性不同的视空间工作记忆的广度。研究结果表明：（1）场独立性认知方式是影响视空间工作记忆广度的一个重要的个别差异变量,在路径复杂或呈现的材料结构随机的条件下,场独立者的视空间工作记忆广度明显高于场依存者;（2）材料呈现的路径、数量是影响视空间记忆广度的重要因素,在路径简单或数量少的情况下被试的视空间记忆广度要明显得高     

心理旋转中的性别差异

性别差异是认知心理学中一个重要的研究领域。男性在执行空间认知任务时的表现往往好于女性,在心理旋转任务中,这种现象更为普遍。近年来,人们在行为和脑成像等层面对心理旋转中的性别差异进行了大量的研究,该文通过对其中一部分研究的回顾描述了心理旋转的性别差异在行为及脑成像实验中的表现,总结了可能导致这种性别差异的生理及策略等因素     

进行中任务变化对轻度认知功能障碍者基于事件前瞻记忆的影响

本实验采用2被试组别(MCI组、正常老年组) × 3进行中任务变化(无变化、顺序变化、随机变化)被试间设计探究进行中任务变化对轻度认知功能障碍者基于事件前瞻记忆的影响。结果表明：(1)轻度认知功能障碍者的前瞻记忆成绩显著低于正常老年人的前瞻记忆成绩; (2)进行中任务变化对两组被试前瞻记忆和进行中任务的反应时影响存在显著差异。进行中任务变化越大, 轻度认知功能障碍者完成前瞻记忆和进行中任务的反应速度越慢; 而正常老年被试则不受影响。研究支持前瞻记忆策略加工的理论观点, 认为执行功能损伤可能是导致轻度认知功能障碍者前瞻记忆失败的主要原因。     

眼跳的研究范式及其主要认知功能

眼跳运动系统为研究者探索行为的认知控制机制提供了有力工具。已有研究发现,很多认知过程会影响不同类型眼跳任务中的眼跳参数。在系统梳理已有研究的基础上,从以下4个方面系统阐述和评价了眼跳运动的研究范式和主要认知功能：（1）视觉导向眼跳的研究范式和变式及其认知功能,包括空白/重叠效应、分心物效应、提示效应、学习效应等;（2）预测性眼跳的研究范式和认知控制,涉及神经生物钟理论、视空间工作记忆、指导语等;（3）记忆导向眼跳的研究范式和变式及其认知控制,包括分心物效应、年龄效应、视空间工作记忆的抑制效应、注意等;（4）反向眼跳的研究范式和变式及其认知控制,包括反向眼跳抑制、眼跳决策信号竞争整合模型、工作记忆容量、注意、错误监控、学习、奖励和年龄效应等。最后,结合已有研究范式对未来眼跳研究的趋势和需解决的问题进行了展望。     

儿童侵犯性性别差异的社会认知技能视角

影响侵犯性性别差异的因素众多,本研究认为的社会认知技能的性别差异与侵犯性性别差异有密切关系,认知技能是风险因素和行为之间的调节者。女性相比于男性侵犯性行为少与女性神经机制的发展缺陷概率小,生理成熟早,最终发展形成较男性更好的社会认知技能有密切关系。     

触觉时序知觉手臂交叉效应的性别差异

本研究探讨触觉时序知觉的手臂交叉效应是否存在性别差异。通过两个实验在较短和较长的SOA条件下考察男性和女性被试在基于体觉和基于外部空间的触觉时序判断任务中的表现。结果表明,男性与女性被试在基于体觉和基于外部空间的触觉时序判断任务中均存在手臂交叉效应,SOA较短时男性被试的手臂交叉效应显著小于女性被试,但在SOA较长的条件下手臂交叉效应没有明显的性别差异。触觉时序知觉手臂交叉效应的性别差异可能与空间知觉能力和生理解剖学因素有关。     

材料数量与呈现速度对视、听同时瞬时记忆的影响

视、听材料同时识记、瞬时记忆效果并非普遍降低。材料数量影响视、听同时瞬时记忆效果的变化及其方向;无意义联系汉字数量超记忆广度时,视、听同时瞬时记忆相对效果与非同时识记相比提高。材料数量也影响视、听同时瞬时记忆的相对优势及重现方式。这些结果倾向于表明,材料数量在记忆广度内及超记忆广度时,视、听同时瞬时记忆的组织加工不同。呈现速度只影响记忆优势及重现方式。根据多项分析,可以认为视、听通道标签是组织视、听同时瞬时记忆最鲜明的标签,经过识记5个视、听同时字表,视、听同时识记效果有提高趋势。     

认知心理学关于记忆问题的研究概况

记忆心理学问题是认知心理学研究的一个核心领域。认知心理学家把记忆看作是信息在某时某处的保持。并把记忆划分为两种类型:情节记忆(episodic memory)和语义记忆(semantic memory)。前者指自性的记忆,它保持着人们过去经验的时间空间特点。后者指人们关于符号、概念的一般知识以及运用这些符号、概念的规则。这个分     

视空间定位的短时记忆的超广度研究

采用视空间定位的短时记忆任务研究记忆负载的增加对空间位置信息和时间顺序信息的记忆成绩的影响。结果表明,在记忆负载较低时,位置记忆和顺序记忆的成绩相同;当记忆负载逐渐增大时,位置记忆的成绩逐渐上升,而顺序记忆的成绩先上升后下降,两者出现显著性的差异。在这个过程中,短时记忆的加工发生相应的变化,体现了短时记忆加工资源的有限性。     

条件性恐惧记忆消退返回的性别差异

采用预期判断任务考察男女性对已消退的条件性恐惧记忆是否会出现消退返回的现象。结果表明: (1)在对已习得的条件性恐惧记忆消退后4个小时进行测试, 被试整体会出现明显的消退返回现象; (2)对消退返回现象的性别差异进行比较, 女性比男性的消退返回现象更突出, 并且差异显著; (3)与男性相比, 女性对条件性恐惧记忆具有易习得难消退的趋势, 但是性别差异不显著。研究结果验证了消退返回现象存在的普遍性, 并且有着显著的性别差异, 为以后对创伤后应激障碍患者的治疗应考虑性别因素提供了心理学依据。     

Sex differences in episodic memory: minimal influence of estradiol

Sex differences exist for several cognitive tasks and estrogen has been suggested to influence these differences. Eighteen men and 18 women were matched on age and estradiol level. Potential sex differences were assessed in episodic memory, semantic memory, verbal fluency, problem solving, and visuospatial ability. Significant sex differences, favoring women, were found for tasks assessing episodic memory. Correlations between estradiol level and cognitive performance were significant for face recognition in females. Since sex differences remained in verbal episodic memory tasks and face recognition despite matched levels of estradiol, circulating estradiol does not appear to be of paramount consequence for observed sex differences in episodic memory.     

Sex differences in cognition are stable over a 10-year period in adulthood and old age

Sex differences in declarative memory and visuospatial ability are robust in cross-sectional studies. The present longitudinal study examined whether sex differences in cognition were present over a 10-year period, and whether age modified the magnitude of sex differences. Tests assessing episodic and semantic memory, and visuospatial ability were administered to 625 nondemented adults (initially aged 35-80 years), participating in the population-based Betula study at two follow-up occasions. There was stability of sex differences across five age groups and over a 10-year period. Women performed at a higher level than men on episodic recall, face and verbal recognition, and semantic fluency, whereas men performed better than women on a task-assessing, visuospatial ability. Sex differences in cognitive functions are stable over a 10-year period and from 35 to 90 years of age.     

Sex Differences in Cognition are Stable Over a 10-Year Period in Adulthood and Old Age

ABSTRACT

Sex differences in declarative memory and visuospatial ability are robust in cross-sectional studies. The present longitudinal study examined whether sex differences in cognition were present over a 10-year period, and whether age modified the magnitude of sex differences. Tests assessing episodic and semantic memory, and visuospatial ability were administered to 625 nondemented adults (initially aged 35–80 years), participating in the population-based Betula study at two follow-up occasions. There was stability of sex differences across five age groups and over a 10-year period. Women performed at a higher level than men on episodic recall, face and verbal recognition, and semantic fluency, whereas men performed better than women on a task-assessing, visuospatial ability. Sex differences in cognitive functions are stable over a 10-year period and from 35 to 90 years of age.     

Sex Differences in Episodic Memory

ABSTRACT— Research shows sex differences in episodic memory. These differences vary in magnitude as a function of the type of material to be remembered. Throughout the life span, verbal episodic-memory tasks yield differences favoring women. In contrast, episodic-memory tasks requiring visuospatial processing result in differences favoring men. There are also sex differences favoring women on episodic-memory tasks requiring both verbal and visuospatial processing and on face-recognition tasks. Thus, there may be a small, general episodic-memory advantage for women—an advantage that can increase by the advantage women have over men in verbal production and can be reversed by the male advantage in visuospatial tasks. In addition, environmental factors affect the magnitude of the sex differences in episodic memory.     

Gender differences in episodic memory and visual working memory including the effects of age

Analysing the relationship between gender and memory, and examining the effects of age on the overall memory-related functioning, are the ongoing goals of psychological research. The present study examined gender and age group differences in episodic memory with respect to the type of task. In addition, these subgroup differences were also analysed in visual working memory. A sample of 366 women and 330 men, aged between 16 and 69 years of age, participated in the current study. Results indicate that women outperformed men on auditory memory tasks, whereas male adolescents and older male adults showed higher level performances on visual episodic and visual working memory measures. However, the size of gender-linked effects varied somewhat across age groups. Furthermore, results partly support a declining performance on episodic memory and visual working memory measures with increasing age. Although age-related losses in episodic memory could not be explained by a decreasing verbal and visuospatial ability with age, women's advantage in auditory episodic memory could be explained by their advantage in verbal ability. Men's higher level visual episodic memory performance was found to result from their advantage in visuospatial ability. Finally, possible methodological, biological, and cognitive explanations for the current findings are discussed.     

Sex differences in cognition among illiterate Bangladeshis: a comparison with literate Bangladeshis and Swedes

We investigated the presence and magnitude of sex differences in late adulthood, assessing 426 illiterate Bangladeshis, 239 literate Bangladeshis, and 598 Swedes. The cognitive domains examined included calculation, episodic memory, spatial visualization, and global cognitive ability. In general, men performed at a higher level than women on tasks assessing calculation and spatial visualization, whereas women performed at a higher level than men on the episodic memory task. Notably, the pattern of cognitive sex differences was similar irrespective of nationality and literacy, although the magnitude of the male advantage was inversely related to level of education. Finally, the low performance of the illiterate women demonstrated the penalizing effect restrictions in public exposure might have on cognitive performance.     

Gender differences in episodic memory

The relationship between gender and memory has been largely neglected by research, despite occasional studies reporting gender differences in episodic memory performance. The present study examined potential gender differences in episodic memory, semantic memory, primary memory, and priming. Five hundred thirty women and 470 men, randomly sampled from the city of Umeå, Sweden, 35–80 years of age, participated in the study. There were no differences between men and women with regard to age or education, or on a measure of global intellectual functioning. As has been demonstrated previously, men outperformed women on a visuospatial task and women outperformed men on tests of verbal fluency. In addition, the results demonstrated that women consistently performed at a higher level than did men on the episodic memory tasks, although there were no differences between men and women on the tasks assessing semantic memory, primary memory, or priming. The women’s higher level of performance on the episodic memory tasks could not be fully explained by their higher verbal ability.     

Sex differences in visuospatial working memory: components of cognitive processing

Numerous studies have shown that sex differences in visuospatial tasks vary in size and direction depending on the nature of the task, with large differences favoring males on tasks that require transformations in visuospatial working memory. The cognitive processes underlying these differences were investigated using laboratory tasks developed by Dror and Kosslyn (1994). Four cognitive components of visuospatial working memory were assessed—image generation, maintenance, scanning, and transformation—in an attempt to identify the components that would show differential effects for females and males. The image generation task required retrieval of shape information from long-term memory, generation of a visual image in working memory, and utilization of the information about the shape in a decision task. The image maintenance task required only the latter two processes. The information processing demands required by scanning and rotation tasks came from the need to transform the visual image so that it could be used in decision making. Males responded more quickly on all four tasks (ds between .63 and .77), with no between-sex differences in accuracy. We concluded that speed of processing is central to understanding sex differences in visuospatial working memory. We discuss implications of these findings for performance on real-world visuospatial tasks.     

Neuropsychological assessment in illiterates: visuospatial and memory abilities

A basic neuropsychological battery of visuospatial and memory abilities was administered to extreme educational groups (illiterates and professionals). Subjects were matched according to sex and age. The following visuospatial tasks were included: figure copy (cube, house, and Rey-Osterrieth complex figure), telling time, recognition of superimposed figures, recognition of a map, and drawing of the plan of the room. The following memory tasks were used: basic information, digit retention (forward and backward), memory curve, delayed verbal recall, sentence repetition, logical memory, delayed logical memory, immediate recall of the Rey-Osterrieth complex figure, immediate reproduction of a cube, visuospatial memory, and sequential memory. In visuospatial tasks all differences between the two groups were statistically significant. Five of the seven visuospatial tasks (all but telling time and recognition of superimposed figures) showed differences between age groups with a better performance found in the younger groups and four of the tasks (cube, house, Rey-Osterrith complex figure copying, and telling time) were significant between sexes with a better performance in men. In memory tasks, with the exception of the immediate memory of sentences, all tasks showed statistically significant differences between educational groups. Eight of the 13 memory tasks (digits forward and backward, delayed memory of words, immediate and delayed logical memory, Rey-Osterrieth immediate memory, cube immediate memory, and sequential memory) showed significant differences for age while 4 of the tasks (digits backward, memory curve, Rey-Osterrieth immediate memory, and cube immediate memory) were significant for sex. Results are analyzed with regard to current theories in cognitive psychology and anthropology. Emphasis is placed on the finding that cognitive skills usually examined by neuropsychological tests represent learned and highly trained abilities.     

Visuospatial working memory in Turner's syndrome

Turner's syndrome is a genetic disorder, specific to women, in which one of the X chromosomes is partially or completely deleted. This syndrome is associated with physical features such as short stature or failure in primary and secondary sexual development, together with a specific pattern of cognitive functions. It has been suggested that women affected by Turner's syndrome perform poorly in tasks measuring visuospatial abilities and have a verbal IQ significantly higher than performance IQ. Although this result has received strong empirical support, the nature of the visuospatial deficit is still unclear. Recent studies on visuospatial processes have highlighted that the underlying cognitive structure is more complex than previously suggested and several dissociations have been reported (e.g., visual vs spatial, sequential vs simultaneous, or passive vs active processes). In the present study we analyze in detail the characteristics of the visuospatial deficit associated with Turner's syndrome by presenting four young women with a comprehensive battery of tasks designed to tap all aspects of visuospatial working memory. Results confirm that Turner's syndrome is associated with a general visuospatial working memory deficit, but the pattern of performance of different cases can be different, with a greater emphasis on active visuospatial processes. and on either sequential or simultaneous spatial processes.